


Planetary Niche

by HerenorThereNearnorFar



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoilers, The Force Can Only Account For So Many Coincidences, They're Related Guys, totally platonic, wild speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-10 01:44:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5564185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerenorThereNearnorFar/pseuds/HerenorThereNearnorFar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jakku is useless, out of the way, and sandy. But certain people have learned there are some advantages to a place that is literally the last place anyone would look.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Planetary Niche

**Author's Note:**

> This was a foregone conclusion. The Skywalkers are my eternal favorites, all of them, in every flavour. Based on certain theorizing I have both read and made up myself.

"It looks boring." Ben said as he watched the planet appear before them, a small dull speck against all the glory of the stars. 

Leia laid a hand on his shoulder, and smiled. "Remember Ben, every place has something to set it apart."

"This one might just be really boring." Ben retorted. "That might be what makes it special, boringness." There was a snort from the cockpit, where their pilot, another one of Leia Organa's many allies and underlings, so numerous Ben tended to forget their names, was making preparations for their landing. 

"Ben, be polite." Leia chided, more gently than she might have if they'd been somewhere public. It was just her, her son, and loyal pilot Naeven Coren, she could let Ben be a child for a little while as they completed this errand. 

Normally she wouldn't have had him accompany her for something so time consuming and boring, but he'd been in a bad mood lately and his wild outbursts had kicked up to previously unseen level of destruction. Han just couldn't deal with him alone anymore. The other day he'd tried to pick Ben up while he was having a tantrum and had ended up on the floor. Ben hadn't meant it really, had been nearly in tears afterwards and contrite until dinner, but Leia still thought bringing him along was better than leaving him with unprepared family friends or Han, who just needed a break. 

Like it or not, Leia was best prepared to catch a childish Force outburst, she could feel them coming in a way that no one else but Luke could and Luke wasn't a babysitting option at the moment. In fact, Luke was the reason she had a pickup to make in the first place. 

"Is there going to be sand?" Ben asked, shuffling his feet. 

"Most likely." Leia replied. "You can stay on the ship if you really want to, I shouldn't be long."

Ben considered this, his young face contorting with thought. Finally he snuggled back into the curve of Leia's waist. "I'll come with you."

"Even if it's boring?" she couldn't help but tease. Luckily Ben, who sometimes took himself a little too seriously, didn't notice. 

"Even if." he agreed, muffled by her arm. 

Naeven didn't bother with the comm in such a small ship, she just yelled back to them, "Fifteen minutes till we touch surface, Ma'am."

"Thanks!" Leia shouted in the direction of the pilot. She pulled Ben back upright and smoothed his hair, so dark she still had no idea where it come from, out of his face. "Best manners, Ben."

Ben pouted. "They won't care. It's just a stupid planet." Sometimes she worried he was too spoiled, that being the child of two war heroes raised in the center of both Jedi and political power had made him too distant from how real people worked. It was what she had tried to avoid, having him take Han's name rather than hers, but even Solo had power these days. The next time she had a chance, she decided, she was taking her family somewhere quiet for a vacation, where Ben could learn a bit more about the world that ninety percent of the galaxy lived in rather than the the whirlwind of the New Republic and its rapidly growing power. 

"I'm sure the people who live on Jakku don't think that." she said firmly."In fact, there was a huge battle here a just few years ago."

Ben looked cautiously intrigued. "Really?"

Leia tried to remember the official reports, and stories she'd heard, and wove a tale of drama and violence until they touched down. Ben was so easily delighted, sometimes she could remember him as the easy going, cuddly baby he'd been rather than the increasingly difficult five year old he was becoming.

 

 

Lor San Tekka called her Princess, and Leia didn't argue. It was better than Queen, at least. She couldn't deny her past, and she couldn't deny Alderaan. However, she could deny both any hold over her child. 

"He's just Ben." she corrected after Tekka gave her son a bright greeting and asked if he was, 'the little prince'. 

The old man looked confused, and she tried to smile her princess smile, tight lipped and kind but stern, and he eventually gave in. Just as well, Ben got enough royal deference from Evaan and other Alderaanians, and sometimes random galactic citizens because most people made assumptions with Leia's son. 

"Just Ben, then. A fine young figure of a boy either way." 

Ben shrank back, and she took his hand, partially to keep him from disappearing into her shadow and getting himself lost again. 

"Sorry," Leia lied. "He's shy."

Lor San Tekka clucked sympathetically and ushered them into his house. It was humble, but clean. Leia took one of the chairs and pulled Ben into her lap. They exchanged pleasantries for a while, talked about the village, and then they got down to business. 

"I wondered when you'd come for this." Tekka said as he rummaged through an old chest, before pulling out a carefully wrapped package. "Your father gave me this, Princess. It's an old Jedi artifact he picked up on the Black Market after the fall of Temple." Leia let him ramble, although she already knew it's history. She and Luke had visited a few times before to check up on it, though then it hadn't been safe enough to remove it from it's hiding place. 

Besides, she was more focused on Ben, who had gone very stiff and was staring intently at the little cotton wrapped cube. 

"What is it?" he blurted. 

"Something your Uncle Luke needs." Leia said. "And something that is staying in the box until we get it to him. When we reach the new temple you can ask him to show it to you."

"But what it it?" Ben whined. Leia gave him a look and he quieted, but looked sulky as he did so. 

Lor San Tekka gave him an indulgent smile. "The boy has an interest in history."

"Among other things." Leia sighed. "May I see it?"

Tekka handed the package over and she weighed it carefully in her hands, tried to ignore the strange tugging feeling that hovered just under her skin as she did, and the ache in her chest, the empty desperate feeling of her self and the sense of welcoming that the artifact gave off. "Thank you. she said finally. "My brother will be very glad to have it."

"I'm only glad it can finally be returned to it's proper place." Tekka said. He looked like he was about to cry. Leia was suddenly very glad Luke was too busy to come himself, if he had there probably would have been crying. Ben was still intent on square of old rags and ancient magic as Leia tucked it away, she flicked the side of his head lightly until he transferred his gaze to her. 

"Why it it here?" he asked her, and Leia got a sense that he was about to say something terribly rude. "This is just a stupid planet in the middle of nowhere, and it's so pretty."

Lor San Tekka didn't seem to take offense, fortunately. "This is not a bustling metropolis." he agreed. "But there is something very important about it. Can you guess what it is?"

"What?" Ben asked, his previous hesitance around the old man forgotten in the face of the Force. 

Lor San Tekka ruffled his hair. "It's so stupid, you see, that everyone forgets about it. And so it is a very good place for hiding things."

Ben considered this, and Leia took advantage of his distraction to stand and start to say their goodbyes. Lor San Tekka was gracious as ever, his face, venerable for a man only in his fifties, still crinkling into an impossibly serene kindness. Ben was still sulking, but as they left he seemed to brighten. He was as eager to get home as Leia was, it seemed. 

"Let's go see your Uncle Luke." she said once they were back on the ship. Tekka and a few villagers waved them farewell, and while Leia was a little touched, she was primarily happy to be finished. Another day, another task, whether for the Senate, the people, or Luke, it didn't matter. It was routine. She doubted Ben would even remember it. 

 

 

 

 

Breha was asleep in the seat beside him. She had been screaming and he had been panicking, and eventually he had just grabbed her mind in his own and willed her into sleep. Or unconsciousness, if he was being honest. If Be- Kylo, if Kylo ever got out of this mess he was going to have to figure out how he had done it, and how to do it again. He had finished with the Temple and then he had run, his sister in his arms. He didn't know what Snoke would think, he didn't know what he was going to do. 

Part of him wanted to go home, back to the house he had grown up in, wait for his parents to come back. Most of him knew that was silly. He gone too far, he'd killed- he'd killed- they wouldn't want him back. He only had one path left now. 

He didn't know what to do with her. 

She was small, wrapped in white, a perfect child of the Light. The smoke had stained her clothes and her hair was falling out of the ridiculous buns it was in. One of Luke Skywalker's students must have done it, it wasn't any of the hairstyles from Alderaan Leia favoured for her daughter. 

He couldn't take her with him, Snoke would.... and he couldn't take her back, couldn't let her get caught back up in Leia and Han's impossible standards, couldn't let her end up scared and desperate, afraid of her own power like he had been. He couldn't leave her somewhere she'd end up fighting him one day, where she'd be a target. There had to be somewhere she'd be safe. She wasn't that powerful, she could control herself most of the time, he could find somewhere safe and quiet and she could probably live a perfectly normal life. 

Probably. 

There had to be somewhere no one would think to look and no one would look twice at a little girl alone. 

Somewhere good for hiding. Unbidden a memory leapt into the forefront of his mind, of being small and dragged along with Leia to a backwater planet. (Because even then everyone had been scared of him, even then he was on a short leash.) There had been an old man, one of the loyal royalists that the Organa family had scattered around, the ones that his mother -Leia- both loved and resented. He had already looked up and typed in the coordinates before he realized he was being stupid. He couldn't leave Breha with the old man, whose name escaped Kylo. Word would get out, she'd be returned to their parents eventually. 

He glanced at the unhappily slumbering figure next to him and bit his lip. He didn't have much time. 

He set a course for Jakku. It was out of the way, it was safe, he could figure it out when he got there. 

Deserts could swallow people up whole, and history had demonstrated that they could keep even a Skywalker for a while. 

 

 

Breha was awake and calm by the time they reached the planet. Kylo had taken off his mask and assured her that it was all fine, he really was Ben, they would be safe. She was so easily reassured, so easily delighted by the simplest of distractions, she barely had any questions about the fire and chaos he had just pulled her out of. 

"There was an accident." he said. "You're going to go away for a little while."

She did have a lot of questions about where he had been, everyone had been so worried, she informed him honestly, Ben, I haven't seen you in months. 

"There was an accident." Ben repeated like a broken holo message. 

She seemed to sense his uncertainty, his fear. Of course she did. He made himself calm, wrapped himself in the surety of the Dark Side like Snoke had taught him, until her worry faded. She cuddled up in the copilots seat and watched hyperspace skip by with wide eyes. Ben could remember doing the same at her age and upsetting everyone, because everyone who knew anything about flying knew if you stared into hyperspace for too long you'd go mad. It was best to avert your eyes, no matter how wonderful the blue swirls of reality and unreality could be. Ben let her look, it was distracting her and it couldn't do that much damage. Look at how he had turned out. 

She shrieked with delight as they jolted back into the galaxy and stared thoughtfully at the orb that was Jakku, hanging in front of them like an unappetizing ball of space rations. 

"Is that where we're going?" she asked. Kylo nodded silently. "It looks sad." she observed, with wisdom beyond her age. 

"It has it's benefits." he told her slowly. "There's whole star destroyers crashed there." Ben had never been good at holding his tongue around Breha, so he added quietly, "It's good for hiding."

"Like hide and seek?"

He nodded, tasted smoke again and a feeling neither light nor dark, just uncomfortable. 

"If we can play hide and seek." Breha said slowly. "I guess it might be okay."

She was the worst at hide and seek, he remembered. She always got excited and gave herself away. He couldn't let her do that.

Kylo swallowed down his guilt, erased it from his mind, and smiled. "Breha," he said, pronouncing her name like she had when she'd been little and lisping, the B nearly silent, the last syllable a sigh. 'Rey-ah'. "There are some things we have to do first."

 

 

It's fear pushing him, more fear than he'd felt before in his life. Usually when he's scared it's messy, but his terror feels as directed and tempered as a blade. There is a power in that, and he could feel his fear pushing him. Breha's mind is an open book to him, and there is only a little fear there, but still enough to be felt.

She accepted the game in the Force easily enough, only stopping to complain that she's not good at these games Ben, it's not fair. She had no direction, no real sense of her own mind or her own power, but she knew just enough to let him in. She held up memories like bouquets of wildflowers, showing off the colour and the flash and the pure emotion, and she made her own childish effort at snooping in his own mind too, though she didn't get too far. 

He grabbed the memories gracelessly, wrapped them up clumsily, but his terror was its own generator of power and the blocks he threw up in her mind were strong, if unorthodox. She started to panic about halfway though and he could feel her hands grabbing his shoulders, pushing him away. By then it was too late. 

She was so young, he didn't have to hide much. Just a few choice names, a couple of little details, and the sands of time could sweep over everything else and bury it away. 

She looked terrified once her mind was tidied up, but the guilt was easier to ignore that time and as he leaves he tries to comfort her. 

She didn't retreat to her chair, she hugged him instead. "What's happening?" she asked, confusion plain on her face as her brain struggled to adjust to the loss of certain facts of her existence up until that moment. 

He pointed to the planet in front of them. 

"We're going there and we're hiding." he said. "Remember?"

"Hiding." she repeated, still dazed. 

The planet looked boring, sandy, and above all, safe. It was perfect. 

 

 

By the time he'd left Jakku behind he'd forgotten all about it too. It's a forgettable place, that's one of the main points in it's favour. It makes it useful, for certain purposes.

 

 


End file.
